Speakers Series and WUIS host Constitution Day event exploring the 2012 elections

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series and WUIS public radio will host a Constitution Day event exploring the 2012 elections. The discussion will be moderated by WUIS News Director Sean Crawford.

WHEN: Monday, September 17, 2012 at Noon

WHERE: Sangamon Auditorium Lobby, UIS Public Affairs Center - 2nd Floor

DETAILS: WUIS Statehouse Bureau Chief Amanda Vinicky and Chicago Sun-Times Bureau Chief Dave McKinney recently returned from covering this year’s Republican National Convention in Tampa and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. They closely followed the Illinois delegations at each event and will share how these partisan platforms relate to the quadrennial constitutional election process.

Vinicky earned an M.A. in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield in 2005. She completed undergraduate degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003. Amanda has been covering the Illinois General Assembly for WUIS and the Illinois Public Radio network since 2006.

McKinney has been Springfield bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1995. Before that, he was a government and general assignment reporter at the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, where he began his career after graduating from Eastern Illinois University with a journalism degree in 1986. He has won numerous awards for his political coverage.

Attendees will be encouraged to ask questions and offer thoughts on the effectiveness of this democratic process.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. All events are free and open to the public.